Govt receives Sh6.8b for rehabilitation of 24 river basins in central Kenya

The government has received Sh6.8 billion from a UN body towards the rehabilitation of 24 river basins in six central Kenya counties.

The government received the amount through the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) to implement the Upper Tana Natural Resources Management project to avoid further degradation.

According to the Nyeri County project coordinator Joseph Muriithi, the project will benefit areas that have been identified as heavily degraded and need environmental intervention.

Among those who draw their livelihoods from the Upper Tana catchment include smallholder crop and livestock farmers, agro-pastoralists, fishers, rural traders engage in income generating activities.

“This is an eight-year project that seeks to reduce poverty levels of about one million people whose livelihoods revolve around the use of the natural resource,” he said.

More water flow

He added that the project aimed at ensuring more water was flowing into the Upper Tana catchment.

The beneficiary counties include Nyeri, Murang’a, Embu, Tharaka-Nithi, Meru and Kirinyaga.

In Nyeri, Ragati and Nairobi rivers were ranked as high priority basins and rehabilitation began there in 2014 before moving on to Sagana, Amboni, Muringato, Gura, Rwarai, Kagumo, Gikira, Thegu and Chania basins.

Mr Muriithi was speaking while handing over seven motorbikes to the county government worth Sh2.8 million that aims to improve extension services to the farmers in the county.

The county also received eight new pickups from Ifad at Sh4 million each.

The county executive for agriculture urged farmers to make use of the extension officers for guidelines on modern ways of farming.

“We are going to teach farmers how to conserve water to avoid destructions, make silage for their livestock to fight drought,” he said.